Because she had obtained the information on [Meat Lantern] that morning, and because she now understood the mechanism of the Abnormality management very well, the afternoon's work was relatively relaxed.
The energy bar had already exceeded half. X's energy collection task wasn't urgent. The main focus was on training the employees and completing tasks entrusted to her by the Deans.
The morning containment work had successfully contained the escaped [Meat Lantern]. The afternoon was dedicated to organizing employee containment training for [Funeral of the Dead Butterflies]. It was mainly for the training of new employees who had not yet been trained.
Could Abnormalities hurt humans? X didn't know. But the information on [Funeral of the Dead Butterflies] indicated that it just wanted to give employees a peaceful place to return...
This wasn't an easy place to return to. X couldn't deny that. But employees didn't have the right to decide where they died. That was up to the Corporation to decide.
After all, the employees had signed contracts, selling everything about themselves to the Corporation. They were the Corporation's assets, and they couldn't be arbitrarily dealt with by the Abnormalities. Even if they felt this place was terrible, they still had to try to keep going.
When the Corporation didn't want them to close their eyes, they couldn't close their eyes. And when the Corporation needed them to "sacrifice" themselves, they had to try to "sacrifice" themselves.
It was a very cold and heartless thing to treat human lives as numbers, to evaluate them with value. But this was Lobotomy Corp.
And those employees ultimately became the reports X held in her hand. They didn't even have names, just a string of numbers. Or perhaps, just one member in the few words that made up the death toll.
Don't care too much about the employees…
Actually, listening to Yesod, X almost wanted to laugh. The Information Department Dean was probably the one who cared the most out of all the Deans. It wasn't for any particular reason…
It was simply that the Information Department employees were the ones with the highest survival rate that X had seen so far. Because they met the standards.
They didn't take drugs or drink alcohol, they didn't have too many problems like the Control Department or the Training Department, which always held "slogan rallies." They simply carried out orders decisively, like machines on a factory assembly line. When it was time to train, they trained. When it was time to work, they worked. No dilly-dallying.
They worked hard when working, and they rested well when resting. At least, the Information Department employees were the only ones X had seen in the lounge who could laugh and play. Yesod probably never strictly restricted them.
Her actions were more gentle than her words… She was probably the kind of person who was harsh with her words but truly kind.
At least X couldn't learn that. X felt like she was the type who would comfort the Deans with words, talk about caring about employees, and then think about the value of the employees in terms of energy.
It was in line with the AI Secretary's expectations… to become a Manager who adhered to the AI Secretary's demands.
"Angela, the coffee is cold. Wash it and make me a new cup."
X tossed aside the coffee that had lost its temperature.
She had only taken a small sip. She had forgotten about it because she was busy with work. When X noticed, the coffee in the cup was cold, icy cold, like the air conditioner in the room had been set to the lowest temperature.
In the past, she might have felt wasteful. But now… she had probably become accustomed to the AI Secretary's care.
Cold coffee should be poured down the drain, and a new cup brewed.
There was no need to feel sorry. Waste products should be discarded ruthlessly. There would be a new one to fill in soon.
This was the logic the AI had taught X, to adapt to the environment here…
She was proficient at searching for escaped Abnormality under the [Pause]'s effect, and checking the status of each Department's employees. Whenever she found a clear abnormality in the employees' behavior, she would immediately notify the Dean of that Department and order the employee to return to the lounge for treatment.
The Deans' omissions were basically supplemented by X. The Deans couldn't possibly pay attention to the status of every employee. X, besides managing the Abnormalities, also had to check the condition of the employees.
Especially the Safety Department Dean, who was relatively lax. X had to pay more attention to her, put in more effort. Netzach didn't want to be responsible for the deaths of employees, but X, as Manager, would take responsibility for her.
[O-04-84] [Meat Lantern] requires specific employees with a Temperance level that isn't too low to specifically tend to it, in order to satisfy this Abnormality's strange obsession.
[Meat Lantern] prefers employees with [Insight] work, but completing work too quickly will make [Meat Lantern] unhappy. Those employees with [Temperance] attributes that are too high and who also have high work efficiency, usually complete [Insight] work quickly…
So, you need to specifically assign employees whose [Temperance] level is below 3 but whose [Prudence] level is above 3 to satisfy [Meat Lantern]'s needs. It likes to be observed. The longer this Insight takes, the more you can appease it.
It's difficult to manage an Abnormality like this, it's like being a picky customer, wanting the food to be seasoned just so, always having these strange requirements… It needs a professional chef to tend to it.
The employee with the best qualifications isn't necessarily the best. The most suitable one is the best.
It's better to please it than to defy it…
X sipped the coffee that had slightly burned her mouth, her gaze fixed on the top left corner of the screen where the Qliphoth Meltdown bar was. The red energy bar was quickly filling, and the eye-catching purple lettering was there.
When the meltdown reaches a certain level, [Ordeal] will activate. Those energy residue entities will appear in the Corporation's hallways or lounges.
The different colors correspond to different tests. The different tests lead to different monsters. For example, last time, [The Crimson Dawn— Cheers for the Beginning] materialized into many mischievous clowns that stole energy and released Abnormalities.
As the meltdown level increased, the difficulty of the [Ordeal] also increased. But because it was currently in a safe period, the difficulty of the [Ordeal] was only at the [Dawn] level.
"Malkuth, assign an employee to conduct [Attachment] work on [One Sin and Hundreds of Good Deeds]."
As X expected, when the Control Department employee entered the Containment unit for [One Sin and Hundreds of Good Deeds], the Qliphoth Meltdown bar… finally filled, and a sharp alarm immediately sounded.
The sharp alarm was accompanied by a faint sound like a bugle.
[The Violet Dawn—Fruit of Understanding]
[To gain an understanding of what is incomprehensible, they dream, staring. ]
X coldly watched on, continuing to sip her burnt coffee.
Understanding… Humanity's desire to know the unknown…
What is fear? Fear is what cannot be understood. Fear is what is incomprehensible…
Understanding them is conquering the unknown. In the darkness, searching on the path, raising a torch, acting as that glimmer of light that guides the people in the dark forward.
So, Fruit of Understanding… what is it?
The Violet Dawn's test materialized into something like a tumor, or maybe a swollen, pulsating creature, with a violet, undulating tone.
Each of the Department hallways had produced this bizarre creature. If you zoomed in, you could clearly see it was like a normal human corpse with its spine severed, as if a human spine had been whipped out and dyed purple.
The rib cage pulsed and swelled, like a swollen purple bubble, revealing a translucent color. And inside were embedded what seemed to be shards of rock. The purple light emanated from those shards.
There were some characters written on the rock, but X couldn't see them clearly. She couldn't recognize them.
They had no limbs, they were like purple grenades. They crawled slowly across the ground. The only thing that resembled limbs was a tentacle that flailed randomly.
Besides ugly, there were probably no other words that could describe them.
X didn't need to know why they were so ugly, or why they were called [Fruit of Understanding]. As Manager, she just needed to deal with these tests, deploy employees to contain them, and then collect the energy.
Waste would be refined, not a single bit would be wasted.
Like the clowns, the [Fruit of Understanding] was also a TETH level threat. Its desire to attack and its destructive power weren't strong. With some training, employees could easily handle it. The real thing to watch out for was that it could cause a chain reaction.
The clowns would steal energy. But the [Fruit of Understanding] would emit a violet light that would cause some corrosive damage to employees. For the newly trained employees who weren't well-equipped, the longer it went on, the more likely they were to experience nausea, dizziness, and other negative reactions.
Meaning, don't let employees handle it alone. It's best to decisively and quickly kill it… Even if left alone, the [Fruit of Understanding] would automatically explode, but at that point, the containment unit would be destroyed.
Of course, X wouldn't let that happen. The Dawn level Ordeal was very easy to contain. The only mistakes that could happen were the Manager's own, overlooking or missing some abnormality in the hallway, not seeing it… leading to a command error.
But clearly, X wasn't the kind of person with poor eyesight, or a bad memory. This wasn't a technical error, it was almost impossible for it to occur with her.
She commanded the Deans, deployed the employees, and directly commanded them when necessary. After she found the location where the Ordeal had manifested under [Pause], she immediately notified each Department Dean. Soon, those massive pus-filled tumors were dealt with.
At this point, X would zoom in on the screen, raise a cup of coffee, and intently watch how the employees contained these monsters, observing every detail.
Even though they were just pale paper figures under the Cognition Filter, they still had red paint and various bits and pieces leaking out, presenting a different feeling from the fairy tales.
It was like a fake game, but it was real… They were living people, the monsters were real, her Secretary was an AI, and her Deans were AIs.
Under the Cognition Filter, everything was a mistake. X lived in a unique world that only a Manager could see. Others saw the real world, but in her eyes, it was just a thin 2D sheet of paper.
She even found it difficult to remember what it was like to see the full view, not under the Cognition Filter. Even her reflection in the mirror was a thin 2D being.
But the feeling was real, wasn't it…?
And when she saw red paint and various Department components leaking from the employees' bodies, she could clearly sense that this was real death, even if it was just like a rag doll being pulled apart…
The Clerks would be shocked when they encountered monsters, even if the monsters were only a TETH level threat. They would scream, helpless, and run around randomly. Under the Cognition Filter, their exaggerated expressions were extremely accurate and concise.
And after running for a while, some would suddenly fall because of the corrosive damage inflicted by the [Fruit of Understanding] and start to harm themselves…
Whenever a group of employees ran abnormally, there would usually be a group of Clerks who had just passed by that place. Their blood would stain the floor.
But it didn't matter. Clerk deaths weren't counted in Angela's statistics. In other words, those Clerks in ordinary suits weren't considered a loss to X's achievements, even though they were still humans. They were just like the dust swept off the table, or a little rust, just being contained.
The energy collection was completed. The energy bar was already full. Continuing work was just for training the employees.
After a period of "duty overtime," and feeling like the amount of employee training had reached the standard, X declared a formal end to work.
After work, X's cold, stern expression instantly softened, like snow melting away. There was no trace of the ice-cold seriousness she had shown when she was giving orders to the Deans and commanding employees.
"Well, it's not bad, is it, Angela? We did well today!"
X moved her chair, turned around, and faced her Secretary. The AI Secretary was still calmly closing her eyes.
[You finished your Energy Quota well today. Thank you for your hard work, keep it up!]
It was just a perfunctory compliment.
"Angela, did you forget something…?"
But this was obviously not what X wanted to hear. Angela had promised her a reward this morning.
[Hm? You mean I have other work to do?]
But the AI was still indifferent, as if she had already forgotten the promise she had carefully made to X.
Perhaps… how could an AI forget like a human?
"You clearly remember! Angela, this morning… that… You promised me a reward."
X tugged on her Secretary's lapel, rubbing against her, very reluctantly.
[You mean this? But before I give this to you, shouldn't you say something to me?]
"You're so kind, Angela."
X quickly understood the AI Secretary's meaning, but the AI Secretary seemed slightly dissatisfied.
[Oh, is it this?]
"I like Angela best. Angela is the best."
X whispered to her Secretary, her eyes on the champagne hidden behind the AI Secretary.